November Numbers - David

Score - 974

November was good, I guess. It's amazing to watch a baby grow and Kaden is growing well (thankfully). The downside is that October caught up with me this month and my numbers fell. I didn't make much progress at all on the novel (I've GOT to finish it in December to make my goal of 4 novels in one year). Even though I had way too many days under 1,000 words, I pulled a 3,766 word day on November 30th to save this month from not making my top ten - it came in ninth.

On the down side, I now can not make 2009 contain all of my top ten months. :( At best, it will hold the top eight. *shrugs* Oh well, now it's a goal for 2010.

I also sold my second short story this month (Yay!), a nice little Christmas story titled "Paper Snowflakes" which tied for thrid place in an online contest at The Cynic Online Magazine. I only made $25 for it (well well below pro rate) but it's nice to see it out there and I've recieved some nice feedback about it. That story is one I wrote in one day two or three years ago (I wrote it at the day job that day - so technically I already got paid to write it *snickersnicker*) and I originally intended it to be the first part of a short Christmas novel. I started the novel long ago but have never gotten back to it (which is why I don't take breaks from my novels now). Who knows, maybe I'll go back and write the novel one day. I sure am fond of that story.

Also in November, I sent out close to 70 queries (to editors and agents) for my novel NEW WORLD WAR. I've recieved several rejections (some form letters, some not) but I also had one editor respond the very next day asking to see the entire manuscript. She emailed me several times about it that Sunday morning before ever actually reading it. Haven't heard from her since (almost two weeks) so who knows.

So here are some numbers:
Total Words for November - 32,442
Total Words for 2009 - 400,060 (December still to come)
Total Short Stories Completed - 41
Total # of Short Story Rejections - 120
Total # of Short Story Sales - 2

I don't plan on sending any queries out during December (since New York publishing apparently all but shuts down during December) but I do plan on getting queries ready for the rest of my novels so I can send them all out in January and February.

Think that's it. Looking forward to December 2009 and all of 2010!